Running Search Ads in Other Languages: The Challenges and How to Handle Them

Clients sometimes come to us with questions like these.
・We want to run search advertising aimed at other countries
・We want to run search advertising aimed at English- and Portuguese-speaking residents in Japan

The thinking behind running search advertising in another language is basically the same either way, whether you are targeting foreign residents in Japan or audiences overseas.

When you run search advertising in another language the language barrier is the obvious obstacle, but there are other things to watch for as well.

This article covers the points to watch and the practical know-how for running ads in another language.

1. What is search advertising?

Search advertising places ads against the results of a search engine, and it is pay-per-click (PPC) advertising: you are charged when someone clicks.
If you want to understand search advertising itself, the article below explains it in detail, so do take a look.

What is search advertising? A plain explanation of how it works, how to set a budget and how to manage it

2. Advantages and challenges of foreign-language search advertising

2.1 Advantages

The advantage of running search advertising in English or another foreign language is
that you can market to other countries while staying in Japan.
If you run your ads in English alone, you also gain the ability to serve several regions at once.

Foreign-language search advertising aimed at Japan or overseas can be run from Japan. Reaching other countries used to mean trips abroad or setting up local offices, and the coronavirus has made that approach impractical. Because you can reach users abroad without going there, foreign-language search advertising is an effective option.

As for the advantages of search advertising in itself, it lets you show ads to users who are actively searching for your product or related keywords. Google in particular holds a large share in countries around the world and is the gateway between users and companies in many markets. If you can present your product on Google’s search engine, you should be able to attract considerably more interest.

2.2 Disadvantages

There are no real disadvantages, but the following challenges do apply.

■The language barrier

To run search advertising in another language
you first have to get past the language barrier.
Serving ads outside English-speaking regions raises the translation hurdle. English is used by roughly 20% of the world, but response rates are reliably higher when you use the local language.

Look at the native languages of the ten most populous countries.

Country	Population	Native language
China	About 1.3 billion	Chinese (simplified)
India	About 1.2 billion	Hindi
United States	About 300 million	English
Indonesia	About 250 million	Indonesian
Pakistan	About 250 million	Urdu
Brazil	About 200 million	Portuguese
Nigeria	About 210 million	English, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo
Bangladesh	About 170 million	Bengali
Russia	About 150 million	Russian
Mexico	About 130 million	Spanish

English has a great many speakers, but as the table shows, most countries have a native language other than English. Translating into a local language is harder than working in English alone, and a translation agency costs money. Using machine translation such as Google Translate to cut costs leaves phrasing and nuance slightly off, and that feels wrong to the reader. The awkwardness does more than damage the impression of your company; it sometimes leads to complaints, so it needs care.

■Differences between search engines

Beyond language, another obstacle to search advertising in other languages is the difference between search engines. Google has the largest share worldwide, but each country has its own familiar search engines, and Google’s usage rate varies.

Country	Search engines	What stands out
China	Baidu	The most used search engine in China, with a 70% share
Russia	Yandex	A search engine that competes with Google for the top spot in Russia
South Korea	Naver	A search engine with the second largest share after Google
Vietnam	CocCoc	Well equipped with features such as downloads and predictive input

Some countries have high usage of privacy-focused search engines that keep no search history at all. Research the search engines used in your target country in advance and plan accordingly.

■Differences in search terms

Just as culture and customs differ by country, so do search habits. In Japan, for example, someone looking for a restaurant serving lunch in Tokyo will often combine words with spaces, as in “Tokyo lunch” or “central Tokyo lunch recommended”. Other countries and regions are not necessarily the same. People may type the whole sentence of what they want to know, or search using local slang. You therefore need to understand the national character, political situation and time difference of the country you are targeting before you run ads.

3. Know-how for foreign-language search advertising

Here is the know-how for resolving the challenges of foreign-language search advertising.

3.1 Always have a native speaker do the translation

As covered under “The language barrier” in 2.2, there is a risk in a Japanese speaker translating into another native language by machine. Always have the ad copy translated by a native speaker of the country you are targeting.
This is an important step, because running ads with the wrong phrasing or keywords is not simply a case of getting no results; it can lead to complaints and damage your reputation.

3.2 Research differences in buying behaviour

Beyond what is covered under “Differences in search terms” in 2.2, users in your target country also behave differently online. In some countries many users compare options carefully on the internet, while in others people respond to a striking claim with little information. So rather than simply translating the ad copy, understand the behaviour patterns of your target users and reflect them in the case you make; that is how you maximise the effect of the ads. Research those patterns as far as you can, through interviews and the like, and put them to use in your advertising strategy.

3.3 Separate ad campaigns by country

If you want to serve ads in several countries, you need to separate the campaigns, because time differences, cost per click and conversion rates all differ between countries.
The same applies even within the English-speaking world. Separating campaigns by country lets you optimise click rate and conversion rate and analyse the results properly.

4. In closing

We hope that was useful.
Search advertising is an effective way to market to other countries at a time when travel is restricted.

At NowVillage we are set up to support foreign-language search advertising end to end, just as we do for Japanese: strategy design, ad copy, serving setup and ongoing management.

Native translation of keywords and ad copy is of course available too, so do get in touch if you are interested.